Local band releases 17th album

FOSTORIA — Northwest Ohio band Tinfoil have released a new full-length album, "Memento Mori," in April, their 17th. It's the band's first full-length since 2022's "Better Off Alone." Tinfoil was founded in the mid-1990s by Cher Bibler, Dave Harms and Dave Smith, who named the band after the medium that Thomas Edison created the first recording on. This new album was recorded in the band's long-time home, Junk Recording Studios. Junk Recording has been the home of Tinfoil since 1995, as well as the recording studio for blues bands (The Glenn Miller Orchestra), the Tiffin University choirs and other local rock bands and church groups. Tinfoil has made a name for itself in the last 30 years by blending compelling storytelling with a variety of musical styles. The members of the band all hail from different musical backgrounds: vocalist and rhythm guitarist Cher Bibler enjoys new wave, Japanese metal, blues and punk; bassist Krystal Harms is a goth DJ; and lead guitarist and vocalist Dave Harms leans towards guitar-base rock and metal. The band has carved out a niche in the music industry, making it hard to categorize them to one specific genre. Bibler described the difficulty this variation has created for the band in a music industry often focused on strict genres. "Labels and distributors we've worked with in the past have always tried to pigeonhole us with a single genre. Tinfoil just doesn't fit as we do punk, rock, metal, alternative and folk on a single album. We go wherever the lyrics demand. It makes us unique, but also hard to market." Musical variety has also created other challenges, especially when it comes to finding drummers. "Unfortunately, most of the drummers we've worked with enjoy a specific style of music, like metal, and when they're asked to play a folk-style song, they balk and leave," said Harms. When discussing the four-year gap between albums, Harms described the process the band took on after the release of "Better Off Alone" in 2022, adapting to the ever-changing music industry. "We grew up on albums, and we find ourselves in a single-driven market right now. Our manager suggested releasing singles until we had enough for the album, which we did, for the last three years. Now it's time to release them on an album with the unreleased title track in album form." Krystal added: "We always liked the idea of albums with no filler, all quality content, so this concept fit us fine on this outing." The album's title track, "Memento Mori," was written by guitarist Dave Harms in New York City when he was visiting the home of his late aunt with his family. "Memento Mori was written the same week as 'Still Can't Believe That You're Gone' (2008) and 'Already Gone' (2008), but for a variety of reasons, 'Memento Mori' is just being released now … Where the other two songs were specifically about my aunt, 'Memento Mori' is about New York City," Harms said. The band enlisted Adam Alesi, drummer for Rod Stewart and Aretha Franklin, and Latin Grammy winner Luciano Vassão, who mastered the tracks, to record the song and the entirety of the album. Tinfoil will be playing local shows this summer to showcase the album. They will be performing at the farmers' market in Tiffin this Saturday, June 13, and at Fostoria's 10th annual Guitarfest on Saturday, July 11.